CiViK provides 2009 City Council Candidate Information from the Washington Public Disclosure Commission
CiViK provides 2009 City Council
Candidate Information from the
Washington Public Disclosure Commission
On Their Website
“The public’s right to know of the financing of political campaigns and lobbying and the financial affairs of elected officials and candidates far outweighs any right that these matters remain secret and private.” RCW 42.17.010 (10)
As per our IRC 501(c)(4) status, CiViK will not be endorsing specific candidates for the upcoming Kirkland City Council elections.
In keeping with our goals, which include championing transparency in government and expanding awareness by promoting public access to information, our website now includes copies of candidate disclosures for public access. These documents have been prepared by the candidates themselves and have been obtained from the State of Washington’s Public Disclosure Commission.
The information can be found at:
We applaud Kirkland Views for providing an online Candidates’ Forum and strongly encourage Kirkland citizens to actively participate in the upcoming election, to consider all available information, and to find opportunities to meet candidates and learn more about their experience in Kirkland and their perspectives about the critically important issues which face our city. We hope that, just as envisioned in state law, the information presented on our website will be a part of that process.
On CiViK’s website, you will find links to each candidate’s C-1 (Candidate Registration) as well as their F-1 (Personal Financial Affairs Statement). We hope that this information will be interesting and valuable to Kirkland citizens.
The C-1 provides basic information about the campaign registration.
The F-1 provides information about the candidate’s income, assets, liabilities, business interests and certain business transactions.
“The people have the right to expect from their elected representatives at all levels of government the utmost of integrity, honesty, and fairness in their dealings. The people shall be assured that the private financial dealings of their public officials, and of candidates for those offices, present no conflict of interest between the public trust and private interest. Our representative form of government is founded on a belief that those entrusted with the offices of government have nothing to fear from full public disclosure of their financial and business holdings, provided those officials deal honestly and fairly with the people.” RCW 42.17.010 (2)(3) & (4)
“In promoting such complete disclosure, however, this chapter shall be enforced so as to insure that the information disclosed will not be misused for arbitrary and capricious purposes and to insure that all persons reporting under this chapter will be protected from harassment and unfounded allegations based on information they have freely disclosed.”
For more information, please see the entire code section at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=42.17.010
Posted by Rob Butcher on Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 9:30 am
Filed under Elections · Tagged with CiViK, Elections
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It is good to see this information in easy to access form, and I thank CiViK for providing it. I like this statement from their site:
“In keeping with our goals, which include championing transparency in government and expanding awareness by promoting public access to information, …”
Transparency and public access to information is a great idea, so the next step is clear.
CiViK should post a detailed list of THEIR donors and the amounts they have given them.
Let us see who is funding their work. They certainly needed some hefty financial backing to fight the development at the Bank of America project in downtown Kirkland. The public has a right to know. This information is available from the State of Washington, so they cannot claim it is confidential. It just isn’t as easy to find and access as they have made the candidate information.
CiViK leaders, make the information available, please. Just send link or a list to Kirkland Views.
To withhold it would be hypocritical.
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Well said, Dick. I asked them for a list of members also when I was invited to their auction last year. It’ll never happen; they’re too scared that their neighbors might confront them with a different opinion. They seem to be well funded, and well versed on how to hide behind their website and non-profit status. Supposedly Civik’s original members from the Lake & Central project aren’t involved anymore and Civik is just a shell organization where “concerned” (but anonymous) citizens can put money in case it’s needed to be “held.” I still don’t know what “held” means even though that’s what I was told by a member; of course I was then also told there is no list of members other than the original board members, and there are no dues. 2 or 3 people have to sign the checks and be on the government paperwork. You’re on the right track; going to Olympia or the Feds for a list of donors would seem to be the only way to go. Not worth the time spent on a group of NIMBY’s.
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Tom Hodgeson’s F-1 lists his property worth over $100,000 as a number only. I suppose it is a parcel number that if you know how to do the research you can find the address.
Listing it in this manner doesn’t seem to be very open or transparent or cooperating with the spirit of the law..He neglected to sign the form also.
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Look up any KingCo parcel or property here (be sure to coppy the whole link from http to Addstart into your browser):
http://www5.metrokc.gov/parcelviewer/Viewer/KingCounty/Viewer.asp?App=Parcels&SearchFor=Addstart
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AGAIN – Why is Civik so interested in transparency, when they are so clandestine themselves? This kind of behavior gets no respect from me, or many, many others. It completely invalidates them as a group. They certainly don’t represent me and I am ALL FOR a Vibrant Kirkland.
Why can’t you even have a valid email address or phone number for the Citizens of Kirkland to comment or ask questions?? 555-555-5555? Come on, you could at least have put a 425 in there. Show yourselves, or we’ll do an investigation of our own. Now THAT should be interesting.
In the meantime, my feeling is that to continue publishing their “announcements” gives them a credibility that they simply don’t deserve.
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Hi all,
While I understand your opposition to some of the positions CiViK has taken, and while my personal opinion about CiViK’s positions on the issues is irrelevant to this blog, I do wish to make the following point:
The article you are commenting about references public information that CiViK has gathered and posted for the public to use. That is a public service and that is why I have referenced this in the article. It is a service to the community whether you like the organization which provided that service or not is irrelevant. This is good for us all that information about ALL CANDIDATES has been made readily available for us to use. If CiViK had only posted information about selected candidates, then I could find fault, but they have explicitly not done so. Your attacks against an organization for this are unwarranted in my opinion.
When we view every group in town only in the light of their previous actions, be it CiViK or the KDA or the Chamber… we will forever be fighting each other. Judge each action for it’s intrinsic value. Not based upon past actions. I would hope that Kirkland Views would be judged upon our actions and not some past perceived position or action.
This public information is good for our community. Period.
Other issues are more appropriately addressed elsewhere.
Thank you for your comments.
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I understand what you are saying, Rob, and I gave this some thought before responding. I believe my original comment was relevant. I believe that CiViK posted the information not to be altruistic, but to polish its image. They didn’t have to post that hypocritical line that I quoted about transparency, they could have just posted the links.
That said, I appreciate the fact that you want to have a higher level of discourse here, and not just a forum for mud slinging. I will think before posting. Thanks for all you do for Kirkland with Kirkland Views.
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